Incumbents Victoria Lowe and Elena Uhing, and longtime local politician Richard Kidd, have won the three vacant seats on the city's foremost governing body.

The trio beat out challengers Aldie Howard and Victoria Johnson in last week's election to claim spots the seven-member body.

Kidd secured the most support among the field, with 3,629 votes, or 22.33 percent of voters choosing three candidates to fill the vacant seats. Uhing followed with 22.08 percent, or 3,588 people, then Lowe with 3,417 votes, or 21.03 percent. Results are still unofficial.

Howard and Johnson, two challengers who vowed to bring better oversight and citizen voice to the council, fell short with a respective 2,898 votes for Howard and 2,464 votes for Johnson.

The Forest Grove Leader sat down with the trio to discuss their ambitions for the coming term. Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Richard Kidd

Richard Kidd, 76, retired local business-owner:

You have a long history in Forest Grove politics, but have been out of office for more than three years. Why come back?

In the years of being a non-elected official, I've had an opportunity to visit other cities and see how their governments work. Whenever the opportunity arose, I ...visited a city council meeting if there happened to be one while I was in town. I came back and said, "I think it's time I went back and became one of the seven votes on council and tried to contribute to keeping Forest Grove a good place to live, learn, work and play."

Specifically, what goals do you want to accomplish while on the council?

I have no specific agenda. I would like to look at fiscal responsibility and the budget. I have a whole stack of city budgets out there that I've worked on. I'm looking forward to returning to the budget committee as a worker.

I'm also concerned about economic development. I would like to emphasize the importance of keeping jobs as well as getting new jobs into Forest Grove. I don't think that's lacking on the current council, but there are too many things on the plate that haven't bubbled to the top.

What makes you a good candidate for public service?

I pride myself on the fact that, even when I have strong feelings about an issue, I never go to a council meeting with my mind already made up. I don't make my decision until I've had the opportunity to listen to public input.

My focus has been environmental and sustainability issues. That's supported by our vision-stated goals to be a green community. Mainly, over the last 10 years I have focused on water issues, and that's enough for me.

Does your intense focus on environmental issues affect your ability to contribute to other council discussions?

The council is very diverse. We have a retired policeman, a retired Realtor, and our mayor is from the education field, so we have all these different lenses. We don't leave any angle out. Plus, I did time on the planning commission, I have accounting background, construction background, hospitals and high-tech and innovative manufacturing. I pull from those job experiences all the time.

You've been on the council for a decade now. What keeps you running for re-election?

Frankly, one of the big reasons is the Fernhill Wetlands. I want to see the fulfillment of the project to install a natural treatment system there. Clean Water Services says their projected completion of the treatment plant is in the seven- to eight-year range, but I'm telling them, give me four more years.

Elena Uhing

Elena Uhing, 57, consultant for charitable groups:

What strengths do you bring to the council?

I have a degree focused on socioeconomic geography. What I primarily focused on when I came into office was, I wanted us to have an economic coordinator and economic commission so we were able to retain living wage jobs and grow the businesses already here. I grew up very poor, and I know if you've got economic stability, then a lot of those folks on the outer edges have more resources available to them so they can step up out of poverty.

What have you done to work toward those goals in your eight years on council?

The economic development coordinator position was created, then we were charged to put together a commission of 19 local businesses, from manufacturing to high tech, to address the question of who we want to be as a community, and how do we get there?

The second thing I brought was a diverse funding stream. If we are going to survive recessions, we need to be solid on diverse funding, rather than surviving on property taxes. I charged all our departments, boards and commissions to bring in that stream from grants, cosponsoring, and partnerships. I think that has kept us in good stead during the recession.

What do you see as the council's main priorities in the coming term?

I want us to get our comprehensive plan completed. We started on that 14 years ago when I was on the Planning Commission, and now I'll be able to see it come to fruition as a councilor.

We also need to have a real conversation about tax dollars and how those are distributed. In many ways, we have an unheard voice in Washington County, and we're paying the same into TriMet and other regional services, but getting less bang for our buck than bigger cities.

Lastly, I want us to begin talking about the aging population, what resources we're going to need to support that growing population, and how are we going to fund those essential services.